Still Sane
by KiSierra
Summary: "Lydia, what is it?" Someone draws in a breath. "I…" says a feminine voice, and stops. It's quiet for a moment, completely silent. Then - "There's someone outside." Liam stumbles back. No way. \\ In which Liam loses control, loses consciousness, and gets kidnapped. The new town sucks. (1 in the Pure Heroism series)


**This is an AU series. forget everything you've seen after season three, and the ending of this season. You'll find out about the rest later.**

 **The lyrics are from songs of** _ **Lorde**_ ' **s album** _ **Pure Heroine**_ **.**

 **Summary**

Liam feels his heart drumming in his chest. It's the same voices from the house on the lake, he is ninety-nine percents sure of it. They're probably the same people from the preserve - the red-eyed and the yellowish-orange eyed one. / In which Liam loses control, loses consciousness, and gets kidnapped. The new town sucks. _(1 in the Pure Heroism series)_

First piece in the series "Pure Heroism" (1 out of 14, probably).

Lyrics from Lorde's song "Still Sane".

I don't own it, nor the characters.

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 _(Everything feels right) I'm little, but I'm coming for the crown_

 _I'm little, but I'm coming for you (chase paper, get it)_

 _I'm little but I'm coming for the title, held by everyone who's up_

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* * *

 **.**

Kira, like Beacon Hills, is is not like he remembers.

He remembers Kira much more anxious, jittery, self-conscious. He remembers her more childish than she is now, even in the way she looks. Funny how one year can make someone look sharper, more aware.

He remembers Beacon Hills bigger, friendlier, happier. He remembers it through the eyes of his seven-year-old self, almost nine years ago, but he's still pretty sure some of the changes he notices are real, and not his imagination filling holes for him in such old memories. He's pretty sure this place was never so… dull.

"What happened to this town?" he wonders aloud, not really expecting any answer. Kira has only been here for a year. She, unlike him, was never here before to visit her grandparents. She probably can't see the difference, it's not even that noticeable.

Kira looks at him and smiles. It's another thing about her that has changed - she's still smiling a lot, but her smiles are quieter now. She looks much more settled.

"Things happened here during the last years," she says quietly. "I only witnessed a few, but I've heard enough." She sighs and turns her head forward. "I wish I could see how it was here before. Must have been really good."

Liam turns his head back to the sky too. "It was okay," he says. "Not really that different. Just… more relaxed, I guess. Now everything feels gloomier, sort of. It's weird."

He looks at the treetops above them. It's oddly quiet in the preserve, compared to the normal background noises in the town. Especially compared to his old town.

He sighs.

Kira looks - well, **content** here, but he misses their old town. His old house. He even misses Devenford Prep. He knows he can't say it now - he's only been here for one day, and he hasn't even been to the school here yet since it's the summer vacation, but still. He wishes his step-dad wouldn't have gotten that job offer to Beacon Hills' hospital. Kira is great, really - for someone who's two years older than him she's the nicest and most thoughtful person on earth, with her idea to show him around and help him acclimate, but he misses Mason already.

Kira sits up from her lying position and smacks his arm. "Cheer up, Liam," she says gleefully. Must've heard the sigh. "You're going to love it here, you'll see." She stands up, offering him a hand and a smile. "Come on, time to go back."

He smiles back - really, this cuteness is impossible to resist - and takes her hand, but the moment he is standing - he collapses back down.

"Liam!" Kira cries.

He groans, clutching his hands over his ears, shutting his eyes close. Her shriek sounds way louder than it should be - everything is louder than it should be. He grits his teeth together, fighting over a sudden nausea, the smell of trees and soil and Kira's perfume assaulting his nose, the taste of burnt oil from the curly fries they ate earlier making him fight a gag reflex. His body becomes so itchy over the few seconds that pass like this, and he feels like he's about to rip someone apart. Shivers wreck his body.

A hand touches his shoulder, and he has to bite his lip to stop himself from tearing it to shreds, reminding himself over and over that this is Kira, a girl he knows since he was a kid and she babysitted him, not someone who's going to harm him.

A few moments of holding his breath later, the pressure on his scalp starts to dissipate.

"Liam," Kira says, and her voice is still too loud but not that jarring anymore. "Liam, can you hear me? Look at me."

He swallows the bitter taste in his mouth, breaths out slowly and raises his head to her. He opens his eyes.

Kira's face is scrunched in concern, and still, he looks at her and sees so many details he can't stop looking, mesmerized by the most focused appearance he has ever seen with naked eyes. The smallest pieces of leaves in her hair, the smallest of wrinkles near her eyes, the smallest pores dotting her skin - he sees it all.

In his hypnotized state, it takes him a moment to register that her expression has gone from concerned to shocked. He shakes his head, and his vision turns back to normal.

"What?" he asks, confused.

"I…" she starts, then stops and shakes her head, eyes still wide.

"Kira, what? Tell me what is it," he stresses. She's starting to freak him out.

"Liam, your eyes… They _glowed_ ," she says, her voice getting quieter - awed. "They were golden."

What?

" _What_?" He makes a conscious effort not to raise his voice, feeling cold all of a sudden. "What the hell are you talking about? This was just - just a small attack, that's all. I've had them before. My eyes didn't _glow_ ," he insists.

Kira just looks at him, surprise and confusion playing on her face. "You don't know?" she murmurs.

"Don't know _what_?" he asks, desperate.

She doesn't answer. Instead she looks as if she had reached some sort of decision, and her face becomes smooth again. She sits down from her crouch and takes his hand in hers.

"When did the attacks start?" she asks, tone soothing.

Liam still feels fidgety and stressed, but tries to ignore it. "Three days ago. And I've only had four this far."

They're becoming more frequent, he wants to add, but doesn't want to sound even more like a freak than he already has.

She nods, her face calm. "And," she says, cautious, "do you have any idea why?"

Liam hesitates. "My step dad checked me and said there's nothing wrong with me… but I'm pretty sure I know. I think it might be some sort of post-traumatic reaction."

Kira looks at him intently. "What happened?"

"Nothing that bad - I mean, I don't feel like I'm in trauma, but this can happen, right?" She nods, her eyes prompting him to keep going. He draws air in. "It happened four days ago - we were about to leave the house and start the ride to Beacon Hills. I was just coming home from a friend's place after saying goodbye, and I was making a shortcut through the park, and out of nowhere came this giant dog, or wolf…"

Kira is already nodding. "It bit you, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Liam says, looking at her with confused eyes. "I thought I was going to lose my arm or something, but it healed - really fast. My step dad thinks it looked worse than it was, because no real bite can heal this fast, but I know what I saw. And I know that even if it wasn't a serious bite, it's still supposed to look worse than this -" he rolls his sleeve up, exposing perfectly-looking skin. Kira doesn't look surprised. "That's why we got here later than we were supposed to - my step dad wanted to make sure it doesn't get infected or something before we start driving." He rolls the sleeve back to its place and looks back at Kira, who has this look in her eyes like she's trying to restrain herself from reacting. "How did you know it bit me?" he asks.

She purses her lips, contemplating something, then -

"Get up," she orders, standing up. "Come on, hurry. We don't have much time left before we need to go back." She's already starting to walk.

He stumbles to his feet. "Wait, where are we going?"

"I'm taking you to meet a few people," she says without stopping. "And they'll explain to you everything you need to know."

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* * *

 **.**

Liam rubs his hands. "I'm not sure this is a good idea."

They are standing outside, the trees of the preserve looming over them, the sky slowly darkening over them.

In front of them is a big house. Really, Liam is used to big houses - his old town was _big_ \- but not this big. Or maybe it's just the scene that makes it look this way - the trees around the house but with some distance from it, the roof of the house taller than the treetops, the quiet lake behind the house, the desolation - the nearest civilized place to this house is miles away, out of the preserve.

The thought that someone would choose to leave in this rich-yet-totally-alone house is… disconcerting.

Kira shakes her head. "You haven't even met them yet. You can't judge the book by its cover, right?"

"You're probably right, but it still feels like a bad idea."

They haven't gotten to close - still in the shadow of the trees, where they can see the house but can't be seen from it.

Kira smiles at him. "Come on, it's going to be okay. They won't hurt you. Just go over there and tell them I sent you, and the story you told me about the bite and the attacks."

Liam turns fully towards her. "Wait, what? You're not coming with me?"

She shakes her head. "I can't. I'm already too close to their place. I shouldn't even be here at all."

This doesn't make him calmer in the least. "What do you mean can't? What are you talking about?"

She puts a hand on his arm. "It's a very long story, and really doesn't matter right now. Just go. You know how to go back home from here, right?"

He nods. It's not that complicated to navigate the preserve once you're familiar with it.

"Okay, good. I'm gonna leave now, my mom told me to be back by eight, but you should stay and talk to them. They can help you, I promise. They're the good guys."

With a squeeze to his arm and one last smile, she turns around and leaves. Liam sighs and turns back to the house. He doesn't get closer to it.

It's not the fear that stops him - the house looks pretty dark and bad-promising with this light and scenery, but it's not _that_ scary. But he just can't shake that feeling. Something inside him is telling him to stay away, to _go back_. This feeling he gets from this house… like a threat. Like he doesn't belong in whatever it is, and he should stay away if he doesn't want to get hurt.

He closes his eyes and breaths out slowly. _Get over it, Liam. It's just a stupid feeling. You're stronger than that._

But something must be truly wrong, right? No way he is feeling so - so _dreadful_ over a simple house.

Or maybe not. Maybe something's wrong with him.

He shakes his head. It's not the time to get himself so worked up because of stupid thoughts. _Calm down_.

He fists his hands tightly and breaths in… And out… And he lets his fingers go slack, drawing in the scent of wood and soil and nature…

And then there's this scent of fire - old fire, no longer burning - someone must have been camping lately… And he can hear the shuffling of leaves on the ground, the tiny _squeaks_ of something small - squirrel's feet - moving on one of the trees around him, and its erratic heartbeat, and another heartbeat - a bird's, and another one, and…

Three heartbeats coming from the house that looms in front of him.

He follows that sound, ignoring any other distraction, until he's right there, and every sound from inside the house is right in his ear.

Footsteps. A snore. Someone - a male - saying "Ta-da!" loudly and someone else - another male - chuckles in response. Something falling - he can hear it tearing through the air - then shattering on a hard floor. And then -

One of them rumbles. It's primal, from deep inside the person's chest, and it comes out of him sounding like a warning, and Liam has never heard anything like it, and he feels like cowering back from the obvious threat -

The other male smirks. The rumbling is replaced by a sigh, a tired one. Liam holds on to the tree trunk next to him.

"Lydia?" one of them asks. More footsteps. "Lydia, what is it?"

Someone - the owner of the third heartbeat - draws in a breath. "I…" says a feminine voice, and stops. It's quiet for a moment, totally silent. Then - "There's someone outside."

Liam stumbles back. _No way_. They have no way to know he's here - he is deep in the shadows, covered by the trees. It's not possible to see him from the house, even with improved sight, it's just impossible - he is _sure_ about it.

He hears a distant shuffling, feet hurrying down the stairs… His feet itch with the need to _run_.

So he does.

He doesn't hear the house's front door opening moments later - he's too far away by then.

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* * *

 **.**

That night, Liam burns.

He started feeling bad on his way back home from the preserve, so he decided to call it a day, skipping dinner and ignoring his phone and the texts he'd probably got from Kira. He could tell her about his frightened retreat later.

He showered - the cold water made him feel better, but not much - and went to sleep. Only, well, sleep didn't come.

He's tired - out-of-his-mind-tired - but he doesn't fall asleep, no matter how many times he tosses and turns. His head is pounding hard, his vision shimmering, flicking between foggy and unnaturally sharp. His skin - his hand - is itching, and he rubs it with the other hand furiously, mindlessly, groaning loudly. Everything - his face, his bones, his brain, _everything_ \- is pumped up with pain. He is going crazy.

His breath stutters - here's this feeling again, of his insides shifting, relocating in his body - he wants to scream, but ends up biting his tongue until he tastes copper.

He shivers. That taste in his mouth - _blood_ \- makes him feel - _crave_ , letting this feeling of consuming _hunger_ take over -

He tears the blanket off himself and stumbles to the window, suddenly unable to breathe. It's too hot in here, and he can't take it, it's too much and he is _suffocating_ -

He rips the window open and sucks in the fresh air, body shivering, leaning forward to the pool of moonlight. For a moment, everything just _stops_.

Then it all comes crashing back, like a wave of pure agony, making him arch his back and stifle a scream. He hears it this time, the shifting inside him, the grinding of bones against each other as he changes, evolves.

He can hear heartbeats all around him.

He can smell their blood.

 _Prey_ , something inside him whispers.

When he straightens back again, he is not himself anymore, and he is well aware of it.

He just doesn't really care.

He jumps out of the second-floor window, landing with a _thud_ on the ground, and he _runs_.

Smells and sights assault him, blinding him, making him euphoric and drunk with freedom. He is barely able to register what's going on around him, he's moving too fast, and he doesn't care - he feels the wind on his face and the ground under his bare feet and he's high, so high, he doesn't think he'll ever come back down again.

He roars at the fat, full moon.

The world is alive around him.

He's running again.

Then he smells it - that strong, prominent scent, musk, of someone else, someone bigger and older. Someone in Liam's territory.

He leans back and roars again, making small animals run away from him, making heartbeats stutter with fear. He owns this place.

He owns the night.

But before he can trace the scent to his owner and tear him apart like he wants, like his instincts scream at him to do, something stops him.

White, blinding pain spreads up from his leg, making him howl, and he crouches to pull out the arrow stuck beneath his knee. He howls again when another arrow comes flying in his direction, missing him only by a fraction, and he ignores his itch to _fight_ and runs.

He doesn't make it very far. Right before he gets out of the preserve - back to the town, he realizes vaguely - when he catches that _scent_ again in the air, and he turns around -

 _Boom_ , something hard hits him in the chest, and he flies backward and lands on his back, body shuddering from power in the hit.

He stops breathing for a moment - all he can think of is _pain_ \- but then it dissipates and he knows where he is again.

He gets up, flexing his hands, grunting when he feels bones cracking back to place. The other one - _the intruder_ \- is right in front of him, growling menacingly, eyes flashing red with power.

But Liam is not backing away from him - he wants this territory, and he will have it, even if he knows his eyes aren't red like the other one's are.

He challenges forward.

The other one opens his arms and _roars_ , and it's hard, _so hard_ to keep moving and not just buckle down right there and then, submit to this force in front of him, but Liam doesn't let himself give in. He barrels forward and slashes, claws spread open.

His enemy hisses and tries hurl him back to the ground, but Liam latches on, digging his claws deeper. He will have what he wants.

A hand connects to his back. It tears him off the older beast with such force and speed, it takes Liam a full minute to realize he is blinded by pain, and he is smacked on the ground again.

He groans and raises his head, blinking to clear his sight. He manages to see a pair of gleaming eyes - yellowish, somewhat orange eyes - and a flash of something metallic, before pain explodes on his forehead.

The world goes black.

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* * *

 **.**

The world is dark when he comes to.

He blinks. Unrecognizable ceiling. That's all he manages to register during the first few moment.

He doesn't dare to move. The pounding in his head is so loud he fears it would wake up his family.

Then he remembers. This is not his room - not his house actually. What the hell is going on?

He shuts his eyes. He felt bad when he went to sleep, and he couldn't sleep, and then…

Then he went batshit crazy.

Yeah, he remembers now. He sighs heavily, but silently.

He moves his head to the side, but only slightly, slowly opening his eyes after the shot of pain at the movement becomes bearable. The room is as unfamiliar as the ceiling is, a bed in the middle of the room, a window to his left, the beginning of daylight streaming in through the glass. A wooden chest. Clothes scattered on the floor and the chair, smelling bad to his sensitive nose. A boy's room, no doubt.

He sits up slowly, stopping to breath every few moments. His head feels broken, shattered to pieces. Even his leg - where he pulled out a freaking _arrow_ \- feels better than his head right now.

Whoever it was that hit him, Liam is _not_ ready to meet him again. He has to get out of here.

He goes - slowly, quietly - to the door, head swimming. The moment his hand touches the handle, he hears them.

"... you okay?"

Liam almost stumbles back, then realizes the voices floating to him are coming from farther than they sound. Maybe… downstairs? He's not sure, but they're definitely not from outside the door.

Someone sighs. "Yeah, I'm fine. A little loud in here," - a dull thudding sound - against flesh maybe? - "but I'll be okay. It'll calm down soon."

Liam feels his heart drumming in his chest. It's the same voices from the house on the lake, he is ninety-nine percents sure of it. They're probably the same people from the preserve - the red-eyed and the yellowish-orange one.

"I should have gone alone," the first one says heavily.

"Nah, man. Enough with the pitty," the other says, sharper. The first tries to say something but he speaks over him. "Besides, you saw how this boy fought, right? It was obvious he has zero control over himself. And you have to admit I took him out beautifully."

The first chuckles. "Yeah, very thoughtful of you. We're lucky Kira called before he did any real damage."

"Mm-hm. And he's lucky we got there before he died, those so-called peace-maintaining hunters are way too bloodthirsty for my liking." He sounds disdainful. "I actually miss Argent right now, which should be recorded."

The first one hums in response. It's quiet for a few minutes, apart from the sounds of sucking in and swallowing - they're probably drinking something. Liam starts to move back, toward the window.

"We should check on him soon," the first says suddenly, and Liam jolts, barely missing the chest as he hurries to the window, somehow still quiet.

He doesn't hear them anymore, his heart too loud in his ears. Instead he just opens the window - quietly, slowly - and looks down.

He is probably in a second floor room. He breathes in and out nervously, assessing the height to the ground with a fluttering heart.

 _Come on, Liam. You've done it before - just a few hours ago, and your room is probably higher than this one. Come on, just do it._

He looks at the room again. A completely normal room. He listens to the heartbeats downstairs - steady, calm. His fingers let go of the window ledge.

Then there's a screeching sound - a chair drawn back, someone stands up - and he shakes himself and grabs the ledge again.

A minute later he is silently leaving the house, head throbbing and legs shaking, but heart steady.

He needs answers.

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* * *

 **.**

 _I'm not in the swing of things_

 _But what I really mean is_

 _Not in the swing of things yet_

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 **More to come. Not here though - as separate oneshots. Stay tuned.**


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